IT was lung disease which ended Christine Keeler's life this
week, but she suffered under heavy shadow for more than five decades.

Even her death at 75 will not end her notoriety as the femme fatale
at the centre of the Profumo affair. Her simultaneous flings in 1961
with Tory War Secretary John Profumo and Russian naval attache Yevgeny
Ivanov exploded into a scandal. A national security breach was feared -
Christine could have shared state secrets in pillow talk.

She went on to serve nine months in jail for perjury and lived
mainly alone after two brief marriages and estrangement from her mum and
eldest son. Christine once said: "My children don't want to be
associated with that 'bloody whore'."

She squandered cash made from her notoriety, leaving her nearly
destitute. But few key players in the Profumo affair walked off unharmed

emily.retter@mirror.co.uk

JOHN PROFUMO

The Secretary of State for War first saw Christine as she swam
naked in a pool at Lord Astor's Cliveden country estate.

Despite his being married to British film star Valerie Hobson, a
torrid affair began. When rumours of this began to leak, Profumo
initially denied them in parliament and personally to Prime Minister
Harold Macmillan, saying: "There was no impropriety
whatsoever."

It was a statement which led to his downfall three months later,
when Christine confessed all to the press. Profumo was forced to resign
from the Cabinet in 1963.

Son of an Italian baron in a Sardinian family, Profumo joined the
Army in 1939 and ended the Second World War a brigadier. He was once
Britain's youngest MP, entering the Commons aged 25 in 1940.

Yet despite his start as a rising star in the Tory Party, Profumo
was never able to rebuild his political career after the scandal, and
for a year he did nothing.

But his wife forgave him, and he attempted to regain respectability
by committing his life to charity work.

He worked unpaid at Toynbee Hall in East London, with alcoholics
and the homeless. He became president of the charity, and was appointed
a CBE in 1975.

Profumo died aged 91 following a stroke in 2006.

MANDY RICE-DAVIES

Christine's friend and housemate at the time of the affair
seems to be the only one to survive the scandal unscathed, actually
using her notoriety to her benefit.

The model and club dancer was responsible for the scandal's
most famous quote.

During one court case she was told that Viscount Astor had denied
her claim that he had sex with her, to which she summed up the injustice
of society by replying: "Well, he would, wouldn't he?"

Mandy managed to prosper after the Profumo affair, becoming a
professional singer, actress and businesswoman. She said: "As far
as I'm concerned, the Profumo affair was just a pimple.

"My life has been one long descent into respectability."

She married three times, once to an Israeli businessman, with whom
she had a daughter. The couple opened a string of successful nightclubs
and restaurants in Tel Aviv called Mandy's, Mandy's Candies
and Mandy's Singing Bamboo.

She had a number of acting roles, including an appearance in comedy
Absolutely Fabulous, with Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders.

Mandy died of cancer in 2014, aged 70.

STEPHEN WARD

He was the osteopath and society painter, 30 years older than
Christine, who was responsible for introducing her to many of her lovers
- including Profumo and the Soviet spy.

Ward met her at Murray's, the club where she danced. Their
relationship was platonic, and Christine referred to him as a
"father figure".

Yet she claimed he took a great, twisted delight in introducing her
and dancer pal Mandy to rich men he felt would be influential.

The young women were pretty much his gifts as a "society
fixer".

After the Profumo scandal broke, Ward was accused of pimping out
Christine and other women, and he was convicted in 1963. But the night
before the verdict he took an overdose and died days later, aged 50.

His family have since argued he was used as a scapegoat, and
prejudicial reporting skewed the case.

They have lobbied for the case to go to the Court of Appeal
posthumously - a plea denied because the original transcript of the
judge's summing up has been lost. Recently, legal historians and
Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Stephen Ward have focused on the
unfairness of his trial. But this is all too late for Ward, who paid the
price of the Profumo affair with his life.

YEVGENY IVANOV

He was the Russian naval attache and spy Christine was
simultaneously having an affair with, resulting in fears state secrets
could have been shared between the sheets.

Christine later claimed she had been involved in a spying ring.

But, in truth, prudish British society seemed more appalled by the
sex scandal than a potential breach of national security.

Ivanov's friendship with Profumo apparently led him to succeed
in photographing highly classified US-produced specifications for the
X-15 - a top-secret, experimental, high-altitude spy plane.

It is also claimed he was able to photograph secret documents
relating to US tactical nuclear weapons, and crucial allied contingency
plans for the Cold War defence of Berlin.

In his memoirs, Ivanov said he only slept with Christine because
she was a "bimbo" and had not bothered to tell his bosses
about her.

By the time the scandal broke in 1963, Ivanov had been recalled to
the Soviet Union and posted to the Soviet Black Sea fleet. But the
revelations led to his wife Maya leaving him. He suffered depression and
turned to drink.

He was found dead in his apartment in Moscow in 1994, aged 68,
having drunk himself to death.

LUCKY GORDON & JOHNNY EDGECOMBE

These two were the least aristocratic of Christine's lovers,
and, as fierce rivals, played an unintentional but pivotal role in the
revelation of the Profumo affair.

Christine met jazz singer Aloysius "Lucky" Gordon in 1961
when he was selling marijuana. She was looking to buy. Profumo actually
handed her the cash.

Gordon became her lover, but their relationship grew violent.
Christine sought refuge in the arms of Johnny Edgecombe, an Antiguan
club owner who she knew through a mutual friend.

Eventually it led to a confrontation in which Edgecombe slashed
Gordon's face with a knife. He needed 17 stitches.

When Christine and Edgecombe split, he went on a shooting spree,
firing six rounds at her flat door. Both men ended up in court on
separate charges Edgecombe was sentenced to seven years' jail for
firearms offences. Gordon also ended up behind bars after Christine
claimed he beat and raped her.

When it became apparent she'd given false evidence, Christine
was sentenced to nine months in jail for perjury.

It was these cases which revealed her affairs with Profumo and
Ivanov.

Gordon, who died at 85 in March, was said to have never got over
Christine.

Edgecombe, meanwhile, never got over what he viewed as the
injustice of his jail term, and believed the idea of a black man
sleeping with a white woman - who was also sleeping with a government
minister - was too much for society. He died aged 77 in 2010.

MACMILLAN

The Profumo Affair brought down the Tory government of the time. An
investigation in September 1963, chaired by Lord Denning, found national
security was not breached, but Harold Macmillan resigned as Prime
Minister the next month.

Ill-health played its part - it was said a prostate condition was
exacerbated by the Profumo Affair and meant he could not continue.

His successor, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, only served as PM for 363
days. In the general election of October 1964 Harold Wilson's
Labour won a four-seat majority.

RACHMAN

Slum landlord Peter Rachman used violent methods to evict his West
London tenants.

He replaced them with immigrants from the West Indies, who he could
cram in for extortionate rents.

Christine and Mandy were both his mistresses, but when he died in
1962, aged 43, it was without infamy - until Profumo broke.

His name and abusive nature were later revealed, ultimately leading
to the 1965 Rent Act, which looked after tenants. His name gave us the
term Rachmanism, referring to the very worst kind of tenant
mistreatment.

CAPTION(S):

KNIFED Gordon

JAILED Edgecombe

RESIGNED The Tory PM

ABUSES Peter Rachman

sole gains Rice-Davies walked away unscathed

SHOCK Mirror on scandal

COPYRIGHT 2017 MGN LTD
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.